Barquero: by virtue of an interesting setting and a very colorful collection of characters (both protagonists and antagonists), Gordon Douglas’ Western is an interesting one; it’s about the hard times civilization had installing itself, as it’s often the case in the genre. Of course, any thematic subtleties get lost in the effective, violent action sequences. Lee Van Cleef has a fine, distinctive face, and plays the merrily anti-social protagonist with gusto; he is matched by Warren Oates as the violent, psychotic and charismatic leader of the bandits; better than both is Forrest Tucker as the very peculiar but efficient sidekick. It’s a very interesting main location, which gives the conflict great geographic clarity; director of photography Gerald Perry Finnerman shoots the daylight well, but the day-for-night of the film is really unconvincing.
